This image is a small portion of IC 5067. The entire nebula has the popular name “The Pelican Nebula”. The field of view of my telescope/camera combination is not large enough to see the whole nebula. If you could see the entire nebula and hold the picture just right and squint your eyes, maybe you can see a pelican in there somewhere.

“The Pelican Nebula” (IC 5067) [C:47x60s]

The nebula is located in the northern constellation Cygnus (The Swan) and is about 1800 light years away. The bright star on the lower left is 56 Cygni. At a magnitude 5.05 the star is visible to the naked eye just east of Alpha Cygni. Alpha, also known as Deneb, is the star that denotes the tail of the in-flight swan. The nebula is a large area of ionized atomic hydrogen (an H II region). Recently formed stars excite the hydrogen to glow. They also shape the glowing gas into the fanciful shapes that are visible.